Silver Taking Over NBA With Stern Completing Turnaround

David Stern, commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA), sits for a photograph in New York. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The National Basketball
Association’s next commissioner is an ego-free practical joker
with an innate ability to bridge divides and settle complex
disagreements, those who have worked with -- and negotiated
against -- Adam Silver said.

Silver, 50, will replace David Stern on Feb. 1, 2014,
taking over for a sports executive who is widely credited with
taking a drug-filled league from tape-delay telecasts of its
championship to a global sports, entertainment and marketing
behemoth with annual revenue of more than $5 billion.

Stern, 70, announced yesterday in New York that he would
step away from day-to-day operations, surrendering stewardship
to a hand-picked successor who has served as the league’s No. 2
official since 2006 and who joined the NBA in 1992.

“Adam is a world-class executive and will be a tremendous
commissioner,” Scott O’Neil, a former NBA marketing executive
and president of Madison Square Garden sports, said in an e-mail. “He has the respect of the teams, players, owners and
business leaders around the world.”

Silver, a graduate of Duke University and the University of
Chicago Law School, has the respect of U.S. District Judge Kimba
Wood without question. Silver was Wood’s first law clerk in
1988, impressing the judge with his ability as a negotiator.

“He was proficient way beyond his years,” Wood said in a
telephone interview after being informed of Silver’s pending
promotion to the NBA’s top job. “He would find ways to help me
close negotiations, close settlements, that no other clerk has
been able to do since. He just was marvelous.”

Merry Prankster

He was also a prankster, Wood said, recalling one birthday
caper in which Silver hired an actor through a Village Voice ad
to argue with the judge and eventually burst into song.

“He was extraordinarily witty, and would play practical
jokes on all of us that were very, very funny,” she said from
New York. “He had us in stitches for most of the year.”

Silver has been cast by co-workers and adversaries as the
anti-Stern. The outgoing commissioner has a reputation for
flashing a fiery temper that includes desk pounding and berating
those who disagree with him.

“Adam is very, very different than David,” said Danny
Schayes, who played 18 years in the NBA. “Adam is much more of
a bridge-builder.”

Negotiations on a contract for Silver will take place in
April, said Peter Holt, owner of the San Antonio Spurs and
incoming chairman on the league’s board of governors. Holt
called Silver’s promotion a “no-brainer.”

Economic Growth

The league under Stern added seven franchises and increased
revenue 30-fold to a projected $5 billion this season.
Television revenue jumped 40-fold to about $1.3 billion this
season and the average player salary rose to more than $5
million from $250,000.

“David’s been great for the league; it will truly be a sad
day when he steps down,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a
billionaire who Stern fined more than $1.5 million for
infractions including criticism of officials, wrote in an e-mail. “That said, I’m excited about Adam taking over. I’m
actually thinking it could save me a lot of money :)”

Silver was the chief negotiator during the last labor talks
with the players, which included a lockout and resulted in a
shortened season. It was his third collective bargaining
agreement, along with the past two television deals.

Understands Players

Hal Biagas, a former deputy counsel at the union, said in a
telephone interview that Silver’s background in the league’s
entertainment unit gives him a better understanding of the
players as people. Jeffrey Kessler, lead outside counsel for the
union who apologized during the lockout for saying Stern treated
players like “plantation workers,” agreed.

“He sees the big picture and will hopefully make it a
priority to heal the pain of the lockout and build a better
relationship with the union and the players,” Kessler said in
an e-mail.

NBA games are now televised live almost nightly and can be
seen in 215 countries and territories. The league under Stern
also became the first of the North American sports circuits to
put its footprint in China, ultimately establishing a business
unit in the world’s most populous country.

“David has transformed the industry, and not just the
NBA,” he said. “David is the one who turned sports leagues
into brands.”

‘Digital Dave’

Stern, who has become known as “Digital Dave” for
incessantly promoting technology as a means of distributing the
NBA brand internationally, didn’t do it alone, says Paul
Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing
Center at the University of Oregon.

During Silver’s tenure, the league’s digital activities
expanded, including the introduction of NBA TV. Silver also
oversees the NBA game telecasts, which are delivered in 47
languages.

“A digi-junkie who has been visionary in his own right
shaping the league’s multimedia future,” is how Swangard
described Silver via e-mail. “His loyalty to Stern will not
mean status quo, but his promotion means future success will be
built on that foundation.”

The play of Yao Ming and two decades of NBA broadcasts have
bolstered the NBA’s popularity in China, fueling viewership,
apparel sales and demand for stars such as Houston Rockets point
guard Jeremy Lin to endorse products there.

NBA viewership rose 18 percent last year in China, where
the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers played a preseason game
this month. In an interview with Bloomberg Television in
Shanghai at the time, Stern said he expects league revenue in
China to increase by at least 10 percent annually. The 2012-13
NBA season opens Oct. 30.

‘Better Business’

“My fondest memory is of Adam always being engaged and
making the business better,” George Postolos, who served as
Houston’s chief executive from 1998 to 2006, said via telephone.
“I can’t think of a single time in the past 10-15 years when
that wasn’t first and foremost on Adam’s mind.”

Silver became the league’s deputy commissioner in July
2006, replacing Russ Granik. For the previous eight years he was
the president and chief operating officer of the league’s
entertainment unit.

Wood said she keeps in touch with Silver, who attends the
annual summer picnic the judge has for clerks. They also have
dinner once or twice a year. As for clerk Silver, the prankster,
becoming Commissioner Silver, Wood said: “It’s the perfect job
for him.”